The late eighteen-hundreds represented a period of oppression for women and their rights to individual freedom and happiness. Women were expected to care for the home and the children, and to obey the will of their husbands. They were discouraged from particpating in the intelectual arena, and were frowned upon if they expressed independant opinions or desires. Charlotte Perkins Gilman experienced these things on a personal level and from her experiences with the feminist movement …showed first 75 words of 371 total…

…showed last 75 words of 371 total…Her discription of the metal bars on the windows and the bolted down bed, however, suggest it was a place where mental patients were kept. She is especially horrified of the wallpaper and describes the color as “repelent, almost revolting: a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow turning sunlight.” (p.559). Her husband refuses to let her change the wallpaper and tells her that someone with her condition should not give into “such fancies”.